Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Heywood, Benjamin
HEYWOOD, Sir BENJAMIN (1793–1865), banker, son of Nathaniel Heywood, banker, was born at Manchester on 12 Dec. 1793, and educated at the Glasgow University. On coming of age he was admitted a partner in his father's bank, eventually becoming the head of the firm. He was greatly interested in the welfare, and especially the education, of the working classes. The Manchester Mechanics' Institution was founded chiefly by him, and he was its president from the commencement in 1825 until 1840. He delivered a series of admirable addresses at that institution. These were collected and published in 1843, two of them having been previously published in 1825 and 1827. He was elected M.P. for Lancashire in 1831 as a whig, but parliamentary life did not suit his health, and he retired in the following year. He was created a baronet in 1838. In 1843 he became F.R.S. He married, in 1816, Sophia Ann, daughter of Thomas Robinson of the Woodlands, Manchester, and left several children. He died at Claremont, Manchester, on 11 Aug. 1865. A portrait by Bradley is at the Manchester Technical School.
[Journ. of Brit. Archæol. Association, 1866, xxii. 326; Proc. Royal Society, xv. p. xxiv; Grindon's Manchester Banks and Bankers, 1877; Baker's Memorials of a Dissenting Chapel, p. 116.]